Lesson 3 Opening To God

LESSON 3
OPENING TO GOD
Can you share a time
when you felt comforted
or guided through
prayer?
PRAYER: PERSONAL FAITH-RELATING TO GOD
The National Catechetical Directory of the Philippines or
NCDP (321) tells us that “prayer is personal faith-relating to
God.” Through Christian prayer, we forge a loving,
conscious, personal relationship with God, our all-loving,
good Father, who has adopted us through His beloved Son,
Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit (cf. CFC, 1475). When we are
fully aware of our relationship with God, and graced by the
Holy Spirit, we actively take part in what St. Teresa of Avila
describes as “an intimate conversation with God who we
know loves us.”
Prayer necessitates from us a clear understanding of
WHO GOD IS and WHO WE ARE. The Catechism for
Filipino Catholics or CFC (1476) tells us that prayer can be
an adoration of our creator who calls us to become His
children. Prayer can be also be an act of contrition for
forgiveness from our divine Savior for all our sins.
Furthermore, prayer can be a thanksgiving for all the
blessings that we have received. We can also pray for our
needs and the needs of others through petition prayers
or consecrate our thoughts, words, and actions to God
through offertory prayers.
Basic prayers, therefore, can be adoration, thanksgiving,
petition, contrition, and offering. Such prayers emanate
from our deepest selves (kalooban) and inspired by God's
Holy Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church or CCC
(2623-39) succinctly describes prayer as the very life of
our hearts and souls to which the Holy Spirit gives life. It
must then be made clear that we are able to pray not
because we can but because of God’s grace. CFC (1479)
proclaims: “Our Christian prayer, then, is not something
we do on our own power “for God,” as it were, but a
precious gift to us by the Spirit.”
CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN PRAYER, WORSHIP,
AND MORAL LIFE
We know that every sacred time and season has a liturgy,
popular symbol, and a call to action. Take for example the
season of Advent. It has a liturgy of four weeks leading up
to the celebration of Christmas, during Advent, we light
up the candles in the Advent Wreath (popular symbol)
wherein the purple candles symbolize the prayer,
penance, and preparatory sacrifices and good works
undertaken at this time (call to action).
Another example is Christmas wherein the liturgy
begins with the vigil mass on Christmas Eve and
concludes with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
During Christmas, we exchange gifts to honor God the
Father's gift of his only Son to the world (popular
symbol Also, having received the gift of Christ, we
naturally want to pass that gift along to our loved ones
(call to action).
Aside from having freedom to celebrate the sacred
times and seasons and participate in the liturgies we
are also given the opportunity to have a deeper and
more meaningful encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ
through “inculturated liturgies.” The Catechism for
Filipino Catholics or CFC (1471) tells us of the significant
gains in the liturgy such as: Masses celebrated using
the vernacular language, local hymns written and put to
music, installation of Lay ministers, and the “Misa ng
Sambayanang Pilipino.”
However, the Second Plenary Council noted that “in the
Philippines, worship has unfortunately been often
separated from the totality of life” (cf. PCP lI 167). This
means that even though most Filipino Catholics attend
the liturgical celebrations and participate in prayer,
there seems to be only a few who see the intimate link
between prayer/worship and one's moral life. Our
Christian faith and worship must enter into our moral
decisions. CFC (1472) tells us that we gain God's grace
through prayer and the sacraments and acts of loving
service to our neighbor.
AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN PRAYER
The Cathechism for Filipino Catholics (1480) tells us that
“authentic prayer is always rooted in the heart and related
to the neighbor in loving compassion and service.”
Christian prayer is directly addhessed to God while
involving an intrinsic relation to one's neighbor (CFC, 1481).
Our prayer therefore is two-fold: it is to God and for
others.
If we are to inculcate an authentic prayer-life, we need
to understand the nature and method of prayer. CFC
(1565) tells us that, as to its nature, Christian prayer is
personal communion with God our Father, through
Jesus Christ in the Spirit, within the Church, centered
around the Eucharistic Table, in our pilgrimage of faith,
hope, and loving service of neighbor.
As to its method, Christian prayer is grounded in
Sacred Scripture and the Church's liturgy, actively
drawing on our concrete human context, and
consciously seeking to follow the Spirit's movement
guiding us to personal spiritual growth and communal
faith-commitment”
Authentic Christian prayer, therefore, is “personal”
(graced by the Holy Spirit we intimately converse with
God who loves us, “communal” (we pray with the other
members of the Church through the sacred liturgies
and sacramental worship), and a “faith-commitmet” to
serve our neighbors specially the “least, the last, and
the forgotten.”
Our Christian prayer, then, is not something we do on
our own power “for God,” as it were, but a precious gift
to us by the Spirit. “Prayer is not learned through the
teaching of others; it has its oun special teacher, God,
the teacher of all people who gives prayer to those who
pray” (St. John Climacus, Step 28) Catechism for
Filipino Catholics, 1479
Authentic Christian worship includes both an inner
attitude of reverence and homage before God and an
outward expression in signs and words (CFC, 1497). Also,
it consists of deeds from the heart which means doing
good and rendering justice to the poor, the widow, and
orphan (cf. Isaiah 1:11-17; 58:1-10 and Amos 5:21-24).
In his Apostolic trip to the Philippines in January 15-19,
2015, Pope Francis encouraged the Christian faithful to
“go to the periphery.” We are called to be “a Church that
is poor and for the poor.”

Lesson 3 Opening To God

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 3 Opening To God

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 3 Opening To God

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

LESSON 3

You might also like